Ohio State's Cameron Heyward plays key role for Buckeyes

New Year’s Eve in New Orleans, and her 21-year-old son was with his buddies in a hotel adjacent to the French Quarter.

Eliot Kamenitz/The Times-PicayuneOhio State senior defensive end Cameron Heyward, the son of former New Orleans Saints running back Ironhead Heyward, was first team All-Big Ten for a season in which he had 42 tackles, 9 1/2 tackles for loss and 2 1/2 sacks.

But was Charlotte Heyward worried?

“Cameron will be in his room,” she said of the senior defensive end for Ohio State. “He’s not a partying guy.”

Is that right?

“I’ll be in my room playing video games and sleeping,” Cameron Heyward said Friday morning before heading to the Buckeyes’ second day of practice in preparation for Tuesday night’s Allstate Sugar Bowl against No. 8 Arkansas (10-2). “Those are my two favorite hobbies. My mom knows me more than anybody else.”

“Cameron’s dad was a little bit crazy,” said Charlotte, who divorced Ironhead in 2002, four years before his death at 39 from a brain tumor. “There were times in Craig’s life when he could have used some of Cameron’s discipline. Cameron is kind of a homebody. Craig liked the streets too much.”

Ironhead’s death came a few months before the second of his four sons’ senior year at Peachtree Ridge High School in Suwanee, Ga., where Cameron established himself as one of the nation’s top defensive line prospects. He eventually chose Ohio State over LSU (current Tiger T-Bob Hebert was a teammate and his dad Bobby played with Ironhead for the Saints), Florida, Southern Cal and Georgia.

Cameron Heyward was born in 1989, his father’s rookie year with the Saints. He is 6 feet 5, about six inches taller than his father, and at 288 pounds he’s about 10 pounds lighter than his father’s playing weight during a 10-year NFL career with five teams. Cameron also has an uncanny resemblance to his father.

Also, unlike his father, Cameron returned for his senior year, although he was projected as a late first-round draft pick as a junior.

Ironhead left Pittsburgh after his junior season, when he was a consensus All-American and finished sixth in the Heisman Trophy voting. Also, Craig Jr., his son from another relationship, was 2 with Cameron on the way.

“The financial situations were a lot different,” Charlotte said. “Craig would have wanted him to have stayed in school. Craig would have been so proud to have been there on Senior Day.”

Almost as proud as Charlotte, whose son was awarded the distinction of being the last senior introduced before the Michigan game at the Horseshoe.

“My boys said I cried too much,” she said. “But I had all of the emotions going on, and then they lined us up last, and when Cameron came on the field, that made me cry even more.”

Cameron admitted to getting a little misty-eyed himself.

“I’d seen the seniors on that day before, and I knew what it was like for them,” he said. “You know that you’re part of something special.”

In an age of increasing cynicism over seemingly all aspects of college sports, Heyward’s attitude goes against the grain.

“I wanted to come back and be with my teammates one more year,” said Cameron, who spent his first four years in New Orleans when his father played for the Saints. “Your senior year is something special. You only get it once.”

To help ensure that his senior year went without distractions, Cameron deferred all interests from agents to his mother, who is a real estate agent.

“My mom’s really my agent,” he said. “She knows my dad went through some trouble with them, so she has kept everyone from me at a distance. When somebody contacts me, I say, ‘Talk to my mom.’”

As a senior and co-captain, Heyward is a team leader and played a role in the decision to let the five players facing five-game suspensions for NCAA violations to begin the 2011 season play in the Sugar Bowl in return for their pledges not to opt for the NFL draft.

“We wanted them back, because they’re as much part of the team as anybody,” he said. “You learn from your mistakes and they will pay for them. But you don’t just want to leave guys hanging.”

While Heyward’s coaches praise him for going 100 percent every day, he’s also extremely vocal, a “screamer” at practice, according to senior linebacker and close friend Brian Rolle.

So much so that assistant defense coordinator Luke Fickell often stops practice to say, “We can’t have one guy yelling,” and it’s always Heyward.

“Cam and Coach Fickell go at it every day,” Rolle said. “One day he stepped on Coach Fickell’s foot, and they looked at each other like wrestlers before a match. Cam likes to play a little, but that guy is really serious on the field.”

Heyward’s performance on the field in his senior season has been a bit of letdown, at least statistically.

In the preseason, he talked about being a game-changer in the mold of Pro Bowl rookie tackle Ndamukong Suh of the Detroit Lions, and early on an 80-yard interception return against Miami and a sack for a safety against Ohio had him as a leading contender for the Nagurski Award, given annually to the top defensive player in the nation.

“He lines up and kicks the heck out of everyone,” said Marshall Coach Doc Holliday after his team’s 45-7 loss to the Buckeyes.

But as the season progressed, Heyward’s production dropped, not for lack of effort, his coaches said, but just the way opportunities occur for defensive linemen.

Still, he made first-team All-Big Ten and the sixth-ranked Buckeyes (11-1) are second nationally in total defense and third in scoring defense.

“There were plenty of other guys making plays around me,” said Heyward, whose totals of 42 tackles, 9 1/2 tackles for loss and 2 1/2 sacks are all down from marks of 46, 10 and 6 1/2 a year ago.

But if Heyward’s draft stock has dropped, as some analysts say, he’s not worried about it now.

“Anyone can see I’m still working my tail off,” he said. “I’ll be in the Senior Bowl and at the (scouting) combine, so they’ll see more then.”

His major regret is that his father is not here to share his final college game at the same stadium where Ironhead played his first as a pro.

“He always gave me good advice and counsel,” Cameron said. “I know he would be proud of how my career has gone, and I really miss those times, or when we were just goofing off together.”

But probably not enough to share New Year’s Eve revelry.

“For a lot of us, this is basically foreign territory,” Cameron said. “But they’ve given us a pretty early curfew (midnight).

“Some people may want to be out, but we need everybody playing on Jan. 4.”